The Magic School Bus Rides Again: A Netflix Revival.

No, Wanda is there (or at least an Asian girl with the exact same hairstyle is). You can see her when they're all in the bus and the raft. Pretty sure that the Latina/Indian/Middle Eastern/other girl is Phoebe given a Race Lift because her outfit is similar and Phoebe would otherwise be the only kid not accounted for.

Other than those two, you have:

A worried looking redhead boy with glasses

A short blonde girl wearing purple with her hair up

The token black guy

A brown-haired, slightly heavier white boy with a red baseball hat

A light-skinned black girl with Keesha's hairstyle, except in pigtails instead of a ponytail

Carlos looks exactly the same: a short-haired, tan Hispanic boy wearing a coat over a yellow shirt

I'd be really surprised if they tried to pass these off as new characters.

edited 5th Sep '17 6:55:54 PM by IniuriaTalis

So apparently the original Ms. Frizzle is now Professor Frizzle.

It's been so long since I've read any of the books, I wouldn't know if they just grabbed another batch of children who'd only appeared in the books.

Yeah, count me in as another who isn't sure why they didn't just make Ms. Frizzle younger and give her a new voice actress.

Like, is the fact that there are two Frizzles really going to be a plot point that's recurring and important? Cause if it's just there for the sake of not completely rebooting a series that's been off the air for like fifteen years at this point, why bother?

edited 5th Sep '17 10:14:07 PM by KnownUnknown

I don't really mind that they introduced Ms. Frizzle's sister and that there are two Ms. Frizzles in this reboot, but yeah, it does seem a tad unnecessary.

Apparently Lin-Manuel Miranda's singing the theme now.

Yes, Hamilton and Moana's Lin-Manuel Miranda.

I knew I recognized that voice from somewhere.

Dude, it is...and (at least in my opinion) he's rocking it, too. A worthy follow-up to Little Richard, if you ask me.

Agreed, I really like his version of the theme song.

So now that the show is out, discussion fades. Did anybody watch it?

I may have to use "methods" to see it.

I watched it. I think it's a worthy successor.

So, Phoebe's gone and she was replaced by Jyoti, an inventor-type. It kind of makes sense. Phoebe's shtick was that she was "the new kid" which kind of falls apart when the new show is in the next school year, so there's a brief reference to her going "back to her old school."

The producer segment is now done by "Professor Frizzle, PHD", still played by Lily Tomlin, and Fiona Frizzle is similar but not the same as the original Ms. Frizzle.

The science is taught pretty well, they changed DA a bit so her "research" is less likely to be blindingly obvious but otherwise the returning characters are mostly the same.

And yes, the animation is kind of cheap, but it doesn't actually hold the show back. The animators seem to have a very good idea of what they're capable of, and they don't push it.

I'm pretty sure Kate Mc Kinnon is adlibbing stuff though. Half the time when she pulls out a quote from a random relative, she quickly says something about the relative, sometimes it's kind of morbid. It's also revealed that Fiona and Valerie built the bus and their family maintains their own satellite network.

There's a character voiced by Will Arnett in the first episode. Hah.

I think it's nice.

Question: is there an episode that explains how it's plausible for dinosaurs to have feathers?

Because even now, I still refuse to believe that dinosaurs could suddenly have feathers...

It's not a "sudden" thing. Thomas Henry Huxley said that at least some dinosaurs probably had feathers way back in 1876.

You may want to look at this. A dinosaur tail was almost perfectly preserved in amber 99 million years ago...complete with feathers. The modern descendants of the dinosaurs are the birds, not so much the lizards.

But no, the new show doesn't look at dinosaurs at all.There's a brief look at a woolly mammoth though. The only real time travel is into the future in the first episode, in a scene that appears to spoof the fact that it's mostly the same class...but the timeframe is clearly 20 years later. They travel to 30 years in the future, and the kids in the class are (apparently) identical kids of the main cast.

edited 3rd Oct '17 12:39:06 PM by Zendervai

>Thomas Henry Huxley said that at least some dinosaurs probably had feathers way back in 1876.

Actually that's impossible because dinosaurs were extinct by then. But it's likely that they had them toward the middle of their life span due to a need for warmth and flight.

They probably meant that Huxley made that statement in 1876.

You seriously need to research dinosaurs more if you think they "suddenly" developed feathers.

The one thing I'm excited for about this show is the new facts. I love the original but it's becoming increasingly outdated each year. We need more edutainment shows for kids. I remember in the 90s and 2000s there were SO many. Now we only have shows like Arthur left.

Uh, yeah, Huxley made that statement at that time, not that dinosaurs had feathers at that time. (Although, technically, since all birds are descended from dinosaurs, both readings can, in a pedantic sense, be held as true.)

edited 3rd Oct '17 5:24:42 PM by Zendervai

Birds are considered dinosaurs by many.

When I meant "suddenly", I meant it more in the sense that nobody seemed to talk about dinosaurs having feathers until last year or the year before, even though it had been pointed out since 1800's.

I blame popular culture's continuously reptilian interpretations of dinosaurs!

I don't think people were talking about it only that recently. I remember seeing books back in the early 2000's that had illlustrations of dinosaurs with feathers.

I'm in my early twenties and grew up on feathered T-Rex. I saw it once in a documentary circa 2004-2005 and never looked back. Non-feathered T-rex is just... Ew. It looks gross. Gimme feathers or out.

Onto the actual show. How is Fiona? Is she different from Valerie?

Because science progresses. It's kinda what happens.

Watched the first two episodes. What is everyone complaining about? This is harmless to both people old and new.